Playlists
A playlist is a list of songs that you create, whether for listening or for some utilitarian purpose. MusicBee offers three types of playlists: * : the user adds and removes all tracks * : dynamic, automatically update their contents based on rules * : use multiple sets of rules to create a customized, regenerating shuffle mode Playlists can be organized into folders, which can also be nested. Playlist Management Creating Playlists There is a context (right click) menu which is available anywhere in the Playlists Node, and also at the top left of the Playlist Manager, where you can quickly create new playlists and playlist folders. The same commands are available in File > Playlists, in the Main Menu. You can also select tracks and use Add to Playlist > "" in the main panel context menu. When you create a playlist, you will be prompted for a name. Static playlists will be created in the format set in Library Preferences for your library playlists. Importing Playlists To add existing playlists to MusicBee: * Use File > Playlists > Import Playlists in the main menu. * Drag & drop files to the Playlists node. You can only import static playlists. Imported playlists will be copied into your Playlists folder in your library playlists format. Playlist Commands In the Navigator, each playlist has a context menu that has many commands in common with the Library Context Menu, such as Play Now, Play Shuffled, Queue Next, and Queue Last. All these function as though you had selected all the tracks in the playlist in their official Playlist order. There are also a variety of playlist-specific commands. Opens the settings for the selected playlist. Saves the playlist as a new file of the format set for exported playlists in Library Preferences. Copies the selected playlist, including settings. The new playlist will be placed outside any folders in the Navigator, but in the Playlist Manager it will appear next to the playlist it was created from. Deletes the selected playlist, with a confirmation asking if you also want to delete the files in the playlist. Lets you rename the playlist. You can also do a slow double click to rename a playlist in the Navigator, the same way you can edit fields in the main panel. See above for the New menu and below for the List menu. Types of Playlists Static Playlists The content of static playlists is controlled entirely by the user, who must add and remove tracks manually. Tracks can come from anywhere in your library or computer and can even include tracks from SoundCloud or radio streams (however only tracks stored on your local drives can be synced to a device or burned to a CD). The two basic ways of adding tracks to a playlist are: * Drag & drop tracks onto a playlist in the Navigator or Playlist Manager * Use the Add to Playlist context menu. The Delete option in the context menu changes to Remove when you're viewing a playlist. You will be asked if you wish to remove the track from the playlist or delete the file itself (you can turn off this confirmation in General Preferences). Playlist Order Every static playlist has an official track order, called its "natural order" or "playlist order", which by default is the order in which you added the tracks. When tracks are dragged to or sent to a playlist, they are always added to the end of Playlist Order. You can see the order if the # column is displayed in the main panel. Shuffling or sorting tracks will not change the natural order. There are three ways to return a playlist to its natural order: * Display and sort by # column * Use the command "Restore Natural Order" * In the Sort By... menu, choose "Playlist Order" There are two ways to change the order: * If it is already in natural order, you can drag tracks up or down the list and they will be renumbered when you drop them in a new position. * If it is not in order, you can choose "Update Play Order" in the List menu and it will be renumbered to match the current order. Playlist Settings There are two options for library playlist format in Library Preferences: MBP and M3U. The advantage of using MBP, MusicBee's proprietary format, is that it allows you to save some specific settings for your playlist beyond just contents and order. * Use default * Custom fields for this playlist only By default, all static playlists use a Track Detail view with the same columns and sort order. Changes to any of them will be applied to all of them. If you prefer for a particular playlist to have independent settings, choose "custom fields for this playlist only", or change the next setting. * Default * Albums * Album and Tracks * Artists * Track Detail * Any custom views... As long as this is set to Default, you can change the view for the playlist in the Main Panel Menu. The playlist will continue to use the assigned view until you change it. Filling in the description will cause a tooltip with the description to appear when you hover over the playlist. Will automatically maintain a copy of the playlist according to your Library Preferences for exported playlists. Category:Rule-Based Features List Menu The List menu can be accessed by right clicking on the name of a playlist, or in the main panel while a playlist is displayed. With the exception of Shuffle List, these commands only apply to Static Playlists. Removes all but one copy of any files which were added to the playlist more than once. Removes any tracks from the playlist that cannot be found at the location they are currently linked to (as shown in the Properties tab of the Tag Editor). Dead links are typically displayed in the main panel with faded text and a (!) symbol in the left column. Removes ALL tracks from the list. Removes all tracks that are not currently selected from the list. Shuffles the displayed order of the tracks. Does NOT update Playlist Order. Puts a playlist that has been sorted or shuffled back in its Playlist Order. Changes the Playlist Order to match the current sort order. Auto-Playlists Auto-playlists are so named because they generate their content automatically, although you do have some manual control over which tracks appear. Rules The most important piece of an auto-playlist is the rules which define it. When you've finished, the auto-playlist should contain only tracks which match the rules you've set. Other Settings Above and below the rules in the auto-playlist window are even more ways to refine the contents of your auto-playlist. Hopefully this is self-explanatory. You can choose any node, filter, playlist, or computer folder (even if it's not in your library) as the source MusicBee will look in for tracks to match against your rules. Playlist folders can be selected under playlists and network shares can be used under folders. If no combination of rules and other settings quite meets your needs, you can add and remove files manually, the same way you would add or remove files in a static playlist. When you do that, the file paths of the tracks you add show up as a list in Add Files, and the file paths of the tracks you remove show up as a list in Remove Files. You can use these buttons to directly enter the file paths of tracks you want to add or remove, but probably you'll come here because you changed your mind about files you added or removed by a different method. Click Add Files to remove files you have added, and Remove Files to restore files you removed. If multiple files which otherwise both meet your rules have the same artist and title, one of them will be excluded according to the hierarchy of the duplicate manager. You can designate the maximum size of the playlist, based on any of the following: * minutes * hours * MB * GB * items * albums Note that the playlist will be refreshed every time time you select it. If you want to preserve a particular result, you can export it as a static playlist by right clicking on the playlist name and choosing . When limiting the size of the playlist, you can tell MusicBee what kind of tracks you would like it to prioritize: * random * highest rating * lowest rating * most recently played * least recently played * most often played * least often played * most recently added * least recently added The option to shuffle the playlist means it will reorder the tracks every time it is selected. Does NOT activate shuffle. *do not shuffle *random *higher rated preferred *recently added preferred *different/same artist Auto-playlists don't have an official order like static playlists; whatever order they are in is their order. However, auto-playlists can be saved in their present order as a static playlist, enabling preservation of a certain play order (Right-Click > List > Save as Library Playlist). This tells MusicBee whether you want it to add items to the playlist one track at a time or a whole album at a time. (Albums will be selected if even one track meets the playlist criteria.) These work identically to their function for static playlists, explained above. Auto-Playlist Ideas Here are some guides for creating specific auto-playlists: *Advanced Auto-Playlist *Best of Year Playlist Category:Rule-Based Features Playlist Mixers Playlist Mixers produce a shuffled list of tracks, similar to Auto DJ, but allow you to use rules to constrain the randomness. They also allow you to weight the rules. New track selection criteria are added either using the + buttons or the "Add Criteria" button. The + buttons will insert criteria below the row whose + you clicked. The - button deletes that criterion. Instructions for creating rules are given above in the section on auto-playlists. Like auto-playlists, conditions can be added to refine rules. The number of tracks in each cycle of the playlist will be the total of the number in the "track count" column, so the number assigned to each row can be seen more like a proportion than an exact number (because Playlist Mixers are designed to be listened to for as many cycles as you like). In the above example, "The Beatles" will make up 1/7th of the tracks I will listen to during my experience of this Mixer. I will hear 3 times the number of classical tracks to Beatles tracks. The "gap before same artist can repeat" box doesn't apply across cycles, so you may still hear the same artist consecutively sometimes. At the end of the cycle, MB automatically generates x new tracks (where "x" is the total of the "track count" column) again. These appear in the Playing Tracks list, and can be rearranged or deleted from there. Category:Rule-Based Features